Safety appliance for railway-cars.



C. M. MOGK & A. U. GERBER. SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 22, 1913.

Patented July 7, 1914.

THE NORRIS PETERS CO" PHOTO-LITHQ. WASHINGTON. D. C.

unrrnn STATES PATENT onmon CHARLES M. MOCK AND ARTHUR U. GERBER, OFCHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAY-CAREi.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES ,M. Moon and ARTHUR U. GERBER, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and Stateof Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in SafetyAppliances for Railway Cars; and we do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

Our invention relates to safety appliances for railway cars, its primeobject being to provide a normally sealed outlet or vent adapted whenopened to actuate the brakesetting mechanism and positioned. where itwill be opened by impact with some portion of the track system in casethe car is derailed.

Other objects are to provide means for testing the said outlet or ventto see if it is operatively connected to the air-brake equipment of thecar, and for draining the outlet of moisture.

"We accomplish these objects by the construction shown in theaccompanying drawings in which:

Figure --l is a fragmentary side view of a railway car and of the trackadjacent thereto. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view through Fig. 1-along the line 2-2. Fig. 3- is an enlarged section of the fragile safetyvalve shown on the car truck in Fig. 1. Fig. 4: is a fragmentaryvertical section through parts of the car and the track when the car isderailed.

The safety appliance of our invention is particularly applicable torailway cars having brakes normally held out of engagement with thewheels, and adapted to be applied to the wheels by pneumatic mechanism,which mechanism is set in operation when the air pressure is reduced ina brake pipe. In air-brake equipment of this kind it has long beencustomary to have the brake-actuating mechanism of the various wheels ofthe car controlled by the reduction of pressure in a single brake pipe.In carrying out our invention, we connect this brake pipe by auxiliaryoutlet pipes 1 to elbows 2 mounted upon the truck frame 3 at oppositesides of the car, each elbow 2 being outward of, but adjacent to one ofthe wheels 4t of the car. Threaded to each elbow 2 is a union 5connecting a clear glass tube 6 to Specification of Letters Eatent.

Application filed January 22, 1913.

Patented July 7', 191-1.

Serial No. 743,632. r

the elbow, this tube having at its upper end a flange 7 adapted to beclamped between the parts of the union 5, the resulting joint betweenthe glass and the union being made air-tight by an elastic gasket 8. Thelower end of a tube 6 preferably has a reduced end 9, having a pet-cockl0 fitted thereto, through which cook the interior of the glass tube(and hence of the elbow 2 and auxiliary pipe 1) may be connected withthe outer air, thus utilizing the tube as an outlet or vent for the airof the brake pipe. When the fragile tubes 6 are thus mounted, it will beevident from Fig. -1 that they depend laterally of the rails 11 and 12and that the lower end of each tube (or of the pet-cock 10 carried bythe tube) is somewhat above the top of the rails, so as to clear thelatter at crossings or switches. Should the car be derailed, one or theother of the opposed wheels 4 will drop between the rails upon the ties13 close to one of the rails, as in Fig. 4, thereby lowering the lowerend of the tube adjacent to the dropped wheel below the top of theadjacent rail, in doing which the cock 10 will impinge against the saidrail to effect a breakage of the fragile tube 6. The air in the tankconnected to the outlet pipe 1 and the elbow 2 will escape, and thepneumatically actuated brakes will stop the car. While the fragilesafety vent which thus constitutes a seal controlling the outlet for theair of the brake pipe may be positioned inwardly of the rails, as shownby dotted lines at lt in Fig. 2, we preferably place this vent or sealoutwardly of the wheels, thereby allowing the tube or vent to impingelaterally against the guard rail 15 in case the wheel jumps ofi thesteel rail 12. This outward positioning of the safety member controllingthe said outlet has the added advantage of permitting ready access tothe same for inspection, so that the manually operable stop-cock may beopened momentarily to drain off any moisture which might haveaccumulated in the valve (and which otherwise might freeze in wintryweather, thereby breaking the glass), and for testing the outlet or ventto make sure that it has an unobstructed connection with the piping ofthe air brake equipment. Instead of making the tube 6 of glass, it mightbe made of other fragile material, but we prefer to use a transparentmaterial for a portion of the member controlling the outlet as itenables the car inspector to tell at a glance if moisture from theair-brake piping has accumulated in the tube or vent. So

also, the fragile portion of our safety appliance which is adaptedtocontact with some portion of the track system to effect an opening ofthe outlet might be mounted in other than a vertical position, so longas'i't is equipped with an air-brake, comprising an outlet for theairofthe air-brake system, and a yent controllingthe outlet; the saidvent comprising a detachable cup of fragile material, a manuallyoperable Valve carried by the said cup ,the said Valve being disposed inproximity tothe track system, and

adapted upon derailment of the car to contact with apportion of thetrack system to effect a breakage of the said fragile cup.

2, A safety appliance for a railway car equipped with an air-brake,comprising an outlet for the air of theair-brakesystem,

' and a vent controlling the outlet; the said vent comprising adetachable transparent and fragile cup, a threaded coupling for securingthe same to a portlon of the airbrake system, and a manually operablecock carried by the glass cup; the said cock being disposed in proximityto the track system. and adapted upon derailment of the car to contactwith a'portion of the track system to effect a breakage of the glasscup.

. In testimony whereof we have signed our names in presence of twosubscribing witnesses'.

i a or am ns M. Moore ARTHUR U. GERBER.

i/Vitnessesr m ALBERT SGHEIBLE, E. J, 'IQOOI-L Copies of this patentmaybe obtained for fivecents each, by addressing the commis'sioner ofiBatents,

WashingtpmD. G. I Z i Y

